This account is pending registration confirmation. Please click on the link within the confirmation email previously sent you to complete registration.Need a new registration confirmation email? Click here

They're Practically Giving Apple Away

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Tim Cook, who has famously told investors he doesn't care about his stock price, actually cares a lot about his stock price.

With a $50 billion share buyback fueled by cheap debt, plus a higher dividend, Cook signaled to investors when he released earnings on April 23 that
Apple(AAPL - Get Report) is determined to raise its share price.

Since that announcement, it's up 13%. That's better than
Microsoft(MSFT) , which is up just 10% in that time. But go back a month and Microsoft's gains are 17%, Apple's just 9%. Apple is practically having to pay people to hold its stock in order to keep up with its Redmond rival.

What's going on? Microsoft isn't paying people to own its stock. It's not gaining market share. Apple is doing both, yet it lags.

The truth is that, in technology, no one cares about what you've done but what you're going to do. The goodwill that's such a fungible commodity in every business means everything in technology. It's all about what they think you're going to do for them, not even what you have done.

Despite everything Apple tries, most analysts don't think it's about to do much. The hype is about Google Glass, not the iPhone 6, or the 5S, or even the possibility of an Apple TV. Even
MacWorld, which covers Apple exclusively, is
bemoaning the sad state of the Apple rumor pipeline, even while noting that the iPod, which defined the company, wasn't even a rumor until a week before it was unveiled.

But Apple has grown more than 10%, year over year, as reported in its latest earnings statement. It still sports operating margins of 25%. It's now
number six on the Fortune 500, up from number 17 a year ago. (Microsoft, by contrast, is number 35.)

Put a market multiple of 14.5 on the $41.89 in earnings Apple achieved in the last four quarters and this is a $600 stock. If it can even achieve the multiples of
IBM(IBM) it's a $550 stock, a price I consider fair. Microsoft, by contrast, is already trading at a premium to that, a hefty premium, with a PE of 17.36.
Google(GOOG), meanwhile, is trading at over 25 times earnings.